Four California universities - UC Berkeley, UCLA, Chico State and San Diego State - do far too little to prevent sexual violence on their campuses by failing to train enough employees and educate students on the subject, according to a new state audit that urges the Legislature to strengthen laws.

The audit focuses only on the four universities. It finds that although employees hired to handle discrimination complaints are well trained, faculty and staff members who actually come into contact with students on a regular basis - resident advisers and athletic coaches, for example - are not told how to respond to incidents of sexual harassment or violence. Nor do they always know how to report such incidents.

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"Universities risk having their employees mishandle student reports ... and may not know how to interact appropriately with students in these situations," says the report from the office of state auditor Elaine Howle.

But the audit goes further, criticizing the slowness of the universities' responses to several incidents of harassment and violence, and noting that campuses fail to consistently inform students about the status and outcome of their cases.

'Reasonable resolutions'

Nevertheless, the audit praises the campuses for bringing most cases of sexual harassment or sexual violence "to reasonable resolutions."

That conclusion led some campus officials to express satisfaction with the findings, while acknowledging there is much to do.

"We felt pleased to see that the outcome of the cases we've handled and the sanctions (imposed) were reasonable, and the report acknowledged that our Police Department acted appropriately when students came in to report," said Claire Holmes, spokeswoman for UC Berkeley.

Yet some UC Berkeley students expressed surprise that campus officials would see the findings as positive.

"It was just like, did we read the same audit?" said Meghan Warner, 20, who was raped and sexually assaulted by two male students in 2013 while a freshman. She took the unusual step of going public because she has become an activist for educating students on sexual consent and improving campus resources for violence prevention. For example, she has urged the campus to impose consequences - such as blocking registration - on students who fail to attend sexual violence workshops, but she has yet to succeed.

She said she was pleased that the audit recommends similar consequences.

The state authorized the audit last August at a sampling of public universities - UC's two flagship campuses and two large CSU schools - after nine UC Berkeley students and alumnae accused campus officials of treating their assault allegations too lightly. In February, 31 other UC Berkeley students, including Warner, filed federal complaints saying Cal officials had discouraged them from reporting assaults and had mishandled the investigations.

Last month, the federal government announced it was investigating possible violations of the federal laws at 55 colleges and universities, including UC Berkeley.

'Remorse isn't credible'

Sofie Karasek, 21, one of the original nine who came forward, was not happy that the audit said Berkeley had handled its cases well.

Karasek said she was one of four students who was assaulted by another student who, she later learned, had been placed on disciplinary probation rather than expelled.

She was particularly incensed that the audit quoted the campus officer who handled her case as saying the assailant "appeared to be credible in his description of remorse."

She said the student had also expressed remorse an earlier time - before attacking his fourth victim.

"It's infuriating to see that in the audit," Karasek said. "His remorse isn't credible. For the four of us to be identifying the same person, and that he did it in this calculated way, and for them to do nothing, that's ridiculous. And if they didn't do anything in a case like this, basically, they won't do anything no matter how severe the case is."

Although the report did not list individual recommendations for each campus, the responses included in the audit from the California State University campuses identified specific campus issues. Among them:

-- Chico State should provide sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention training every year to all athletic coaches. Campus officials agreed to do so "subject to collective bargaining obligations."

-- San Diego State should impose registration holds on incoming students who miss training on sexual harassment and sexual violence. Campus officials said they are determining their legal authority to do so. If legal, "the campus will consider the feasibility of this recommendation," Associate Vice President Jessica Rentto told the auditor.

Individual issues were less obvious in the UC responses.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block agreed in general that "effective training and communication of policies is instrumental in combatting the problem of sexual violence on campuses." But he also asserted UC's autonomy and its right to do so any way it wishes.

UC Berkeley efforts

At UC Berkeley, where so many of the complaints originated, Chancellor Nick Dirks offered no argument.

He updated the auditor on recent efforts to improve the campus' responses, including the creation of two new websites: one supporting sexual assault survivors and the other providing prevention information and data about misconduct. And he acknowledged that the campus can do much more.

On Friday, UC President Janet Napolitano announced the formation of a panel of 75 to 100 people to oversee UC's efforts to deal with sexual violence at all 10 campuses.